Field trips to the cool & creepy

Commentary

April 15, 2010|By Commander Coconut, ENTERTAINMENT

I've lived in Orlando since 1969, and I'd never visited the Florida Southern College campus in Lakeland, despite having been to Lakeland dozens of times, mostly to see concerts back in the day when stupid Orlando didn't have an arena (more lack of foresight by our leaders).

But I digress.

I took a tour of the campus last week, FSC being home to several structures designed by the master, Frank Lloyd Wright, who described his creations as "organic buildings well suited to time, purpose and place." The construction took place from the late 1930s into the ‘50s.

There are the buildings — especially stiking is the Annie Pfeiffer Chapel — but there is also the fascinating mile and a half of covered esplanades, which connect his buildings, plus the Water Dome, a 160-feet-across fountain that was restored a few years ago.

My tour was part of a Maitland Art Center trip, and several of us speculated about whether center founder Andre Smith might have visited FLW while he was in Lakeland. It's interesting to consider a meeting between the two creative giants.

FSC is on Lake Hollingsworth Drive in Lakeland; the visitor center is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. You can take self-guided tours, but I'd recommend going with a docent.

Field Trip #2 took me to the corner of Michigan Street and Bumby Avenue and a tour of the new District Nine Medical Examiner Office.

Our tour leader was, of course, Dr. G. herself — Dr. Jan Garavaglia, chief medical examiner for Orange and Osceola counties, and also the star of Dr. G. Medical Examiner on the Discovery Health channel. (The show highlights cases Dr. G. and staff are working on; everything with the doc is fascinating, but some of the dramatizations are a bit cheesy.)

The doctor is full of personality, as you can tell from her TV show — smart, funny and informative. There was a lot of info crammed into the 90-minute tour, including discussion about the "greenness" of the new center.

But as I thanked her after the tour, I said I hoped she'd never see me again.

Navel grazing

•In honor of Dr. G., I watched a Lifetime movie based on a Patricia Cornwell novel (Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta books are about a forensics specialist). At Risk was not a Scarpetta mystery, but it proved that after all these years, the beautiful Andie MacDowell is still a terrible actor.

•Bill Maher, subject of the new Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire, was asked how he would like to die: "Surrounded by enemies, holding a grenade."

•Other magazine stuff: The New Yorker's excellent elephant conservation story in the April 5 issue; The NY's spring training story on promising rookies Jason Heyward (the J-Hey Kid) of our Atlanta Braves and pitcher Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals (April 12 issue); the Preston Sturges story in the May Vanity Fair; the hilarious Entertainment Weekly feature "The Bulleseye" (for instance, asking the age-old question, "Does Joe Jonas ever date outside the Disney gene pool?").

•College Park's K restaurant is now in its new location across from the post office. Try the blue cheese potato chips. Omg.

•Meanwhile, the former Theo's Kitchen on Michigan Street is now Mediterranean Blue. Like Theo's, it offers Greek specialities. My Toscano san'ich was delicious.

•The first two movies I saw in the Florida Film Festival were good: Homewrecker and My Suicide. I have lots more movies to see before I sleep.

•People wearing shorts to the opera! Come on! The Orlando Philharmonic- Mad Cow Theatre presentation of Porgy and Bess last weekend deserved evening gowns and tuxes. What a classy production, what wonderful music, what great local talent. What ugly shorts.

•I just got a second census form, after returning my first the day I got it. What a bunch of idiots.

•Seeing the interesting Shotgun at Orlando Shakespeare Theater's Playfest made me think again of the old folk song, "Goodnight, Irene," which two of the characters sing in the play. The folk standard has been recorded by everyone from Lead Belly to Mantovani to the Meat Puppets.

•Obits: Corin Redgrave, 70, actor, activist and brother of Vanessa and Lynn; Malcolm McLaren, 64, manager of the Sex Pistols; Meinhardt Raabe, 94, Wizard of Oz Munchkin; actor-singer Dixie Carter (Designing Women), 70. Ms. Carter was married to Hal Holbrook, 85, one of my five favorite interview subjects of all time. Something I didn't know until I read the Times obit: Carter had once been married to Broadway's George Hearn (La Cage aux Folles).